Essential Oils, DIYs and Tasty Treats!

recipe

I have always been afraid of making marinara sauce from scratch – like from actual tomatoes! Scary stuff. I mean, what if I buy all those tomatoes and screw it up?? I’m Norwegian, not Italian – how could I possibly make a good “gravy”!???

While marinara made with a can of crushed tomatoes is delicious, I felt it was time I face my fear and give the scratch kind a shot. And, of course, I also wanted to incorporate my beloved essential oils into the recipe.

The sauce took me a few hours to make, because I took my time (and took photos as I went along), so you will want to plan ahead to make this on a day where you have some free time. Those of you with small children are thinking, “free time, what the hay-hay is that??” If you have small children…I am sorry…maybe you should save this recipe for 12 years and then give it a try! Seriously though, I think you can pull this off if you start cooking right when the kiddos go down for a nap. I believe in you.

I will spare you the annoyance of reading each step between each photo. I used to do that, and now understand how annoying that is!! When I find a recipe on a person’s blog, and they do that, I feel like posting a comment on it just to say: “Just give me the recipe so I don’t have to scroll through your whole stinking blog during the cooking process!!” But that wouldn’t be very nice, soo…

I did post pictures below, in the order of each step of the recipe as a visual reference. Some people feel better if they can see how it is supposed to look along the way. So, enjoy the beauty of these colorful fresh ingredients!:

Wash and core the tomatoes. Split them between two 9×13″ baking dishes, or put all of them in a large roasting pan. The tomatoes can be left whole; they will break down during the roasting process.

“Easy Peeling”of garlic cloves. Toss a few garlic cloves in an empty, clean, dried jar (any kind of glass condiment jar will do), screw the lid on, and shake vigorously for a minute, or until the peelings become loose. This makes it much easier to peel! Don’t overload the jar, only a few cloves at a time. Cut off the hard ends of the garlic cloves.

Arrange the quartered onions and peeled garlic cloves (and diced carrots, if using) around the baking dish with the tomatoes. Drizzle olive oil over all and then use your hands to toss the tomatoes, garlic and onions to coat everything well with the oil. Season everything generously with salt.

Roast tomatoes in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or so. The tomatoes and onions will look wrinkled, roasted, and slightly charred. For a thicker sauce, cook longer and stir occasionally to keep from burning.

Remove the pan(s) from the oven and set on the counter to cool for 10-15 minutes. You can easily remove the tomato peelings if you want, but I left them on.

Place a large colander inside a large bowl. Pour the roasted tomato ingredients into the colander. The bowl underneath the colander will collect all the juice. You need this juice for later – don’t toss it!

Scoop the roasted tomato ingredients into a blender or food processor. Add parsley, and most of the basil leaves (save a few to shred and top your final pasta dish as a garnish). Puree until it reaches your desired consistency. You may need to do it in separate batches if you have a small food processor.

Put about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or stock pot. Warm on medium heat, and then toss in the diced shallots. Cook until they are soft.

Dump the pureed tomatoes, and the reserved juice, into the pot. Season with additional salt, if needed. Add the essential oils and any herbs you might want to add to the sauce to flavor it to your liking. Add the pepperoncinis and cans of tomato paste. If you are using red wine, add that to the pot as well. Mix thoroughly. I had to use a whisk to make sure the thick tomato paste was dispersed throughout the sauce.

Simmer on low, covered, for an hour or longer, so that all the flavors blend well together. The longer the simmer, the better the flavors will be. Stir occasionally so that it doesn’t burn.

Serve immediately as pasta sauce, or on homemade pizza (Click here for the pizza crust recipe that I also used as garlic bread with this meal. For garlic bread, I just rubbed olive oil all over the dough and sprinkled generously with garlic salt and then baked it). You will also find the “Date Paste” recipe within the pizza recipe.

Or, you can cool all of it completely and freeze it in containers or Ziploc bags for later use as a quick meal!

I became a fan of falafel the day I sunk my teeth into one of those warm balls of crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside, pillows of delight at an Israeli restaurant in Chicago on my lunch break. Sorry I don’t have a photo. I will take one the next time we make them and post it.

My husband is part Lebanese and grew up eating all sorts of Mediterranean foods. He’s gotten me into eating some foods that I normally wouldn’t have tried. Falafel with tahini sauce has become a cheap, healthy and easy dinner for us.

Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) is one of the main ingredients in falafel and is a great source of iron, protein, fiber, manganese and folate. There are also pecans in this recipe, so there’s a little more protein for ya! All around, it’s a great side dish or meal for any day of the week.

I found this recipe online and tweaked it a little to my liking and to sub in some essential oils for the dried herbs (dried herbs have much less flavor and aren’t as potent!).

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add enough oil to generously coat the pan – about 2 Tbsp. Swirl it around to coat.

Add chickpeas, parsley, shallot, garlic, pecans, cumin, salt, pepper, coriander and cardamom oils to a food processor and mix/pulse to combine, scraping down sides as needed. You want a a crumbly dough, not a paste.

Add flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and pulse/mix to combine until you can mold the dough into a ball, but not sticky. Taste and adjust seasonings as necesary.

Scoop out rounded Tablespoon amounts and gently form into 11-12 small discs (about 1/2” thick or more).

OPTIONAL STEP: Sprinkle on panko bread crumbs and gently press to adhere – flip and repeat. This will produce a crispier crust but is optional.

Once the oil is hot, add only as many falafel as will fit very comfortably in the pan at a time – about 5.

Cook for a total of 4-5 minutes, flipping when the underside is deep golden brown. Serve warm with tahini sauce or hummus, inside a pita atop a bed of greens.

(NOTES: Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator covered for several days. Freeze after that to keep fresh for up to 1 month.)

Put tahini paste, lukewarm water, garlic, lemon juice and salt together in a food processor or blender till sauce is creamy and ivory-colored. You may need to scrape the sides of the processor periodically during processing.

After a few minutes of blending, sauce will turn into a rich, smooth paste. If mixture is too thick, slowly add more water until it reaches the preferred consistency.

Taste often during the blending process; add more lemon juice or salt, if desired.